


Tyger tyger, burning bright

by joouheika



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Dubious Consent, M/M, SNK VN spoilers, Shapeshifting, beastiality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-26
Updated: 2016-01-26
Packaged: 2018-05-16 09:39:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5823667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joouheika/pseuds/joouheika
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Take heed that it is not only within the forest that beasts reside. [Shapeshifter AU]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tyger tyger, burning bright

**Author's Note:**

> happy birthday to my dear aphin! may your appetite for rivaere be appeased momentarily with my offering~

In the forest of the night.

A tiger swims across a vast and quick river.

He has escaped from the poachers attacking him for his pelt, for his teeth, for his freedom. 

Levi has fought them before. As a younger tiger, when they killed a lot of his clan and had tried to capture his cousin, just a babe at the time. Her fur a vibrant red. He’d hurt his leg protecting her then, and what had been only a few poachers then is a grand mass now. Focusing on that weak point of his. They know. They have returned to his lands to enact revenge and finish what they started.

Just because he is a tiger is the reason they are hunting him. He surmises, he cannot think it’s for the other reason. Tigers used to not be as rare as shapeshifters, but it appears they are on the same footing as of late. A hatred of one side, without understanding nor sympathy. Like many of his kind did to survive. He’d gone far across the mountains to live, into the forest, to not be bothered.

Yet still they are pursued, hunted.

Even though man should not tread here where beasts reside.

Levi supposes a man that does this is just as bad as a beast.

He will kill them the next chance he gets.

While he may not be as clever as this one shapeshifter who could turn into a lion, he is not without his own wits.

He’s stolen these poachers’ boat.

They cannot cross the river without it.

Unfortunately, killing those guarding the boat had been quite the struggle. Armed and expecting any form of danger, they’d not gone down lightly. It’d cost him the mobility of his back left leg. He’d broken it in taking the boat and it takes all he has to enter these long ago passed over woods, still far from human civilization but still too close to his tastes. He’d crossed that river, knowing it’d deter the journey of the less adventurous and the less foolish.

He has probably lost them. 

He’s always been a good swimmer, even for a tiger, and can hold his breath under water a long while. If they do suspect he went into the river they’ll figure the strong current has swept him away or he’s drowned. Either way, he doubts they’ll even conceive the idea that he took their boat, capsized it halfway across the wide river, and then swam the rest of the way to the other side. Why would he leave his territory?

Levi really wants to fuck them over.

And kill the rest of them, these filthy murderers.

He’s done a number on his leg, it being broken one thing, swimming despite that another…

Levi lies against the thick trunk of a tree, the overhanging branches of bushes nearby some cover. 

Levi considers changing into his human form for a moment to be smaller for better hiding, but he’s not too keen on not having sharp teeth or claws, when he’s so vulnerable from injury like this.

He probably won’t die.

But it’ll be hell to heal this leg.

The pain is fire up his entire leg, the most warm he is before the water dries from his fur. He sleeps away the night and some of early day beneath the tree wondering how far exactly Mikasa, his cousin had traveled to find a home. And if she is far away enough from those poachers. She grew strong, she should be able to fend them off herself… the last he’d heard of her she was having a territory dispute with another shapeshifter, a lioness called Annie… Annie sounds like a pain in the ass, just like Erwin had been… and Levi knows Mikasa likes to start shit, she takes after him more than she likes to admit. Dumbass.

The forest of the night turns to the forest of the day.

The bright sun is heavier on his eyelids as he opens them, movement catches his attention.

Red.

Like Mikasa’s fur.

A scarf.

Billows behind him.

This small boy, who is peering upon him. Face close enough to his that Levi can see the exact detail of such long dark eyelashes. The difference of molten gold and dark amber in the iris. No fear evident, only curiosity and concern within such a bright and bold stare.

The boy is beautiful.

He’d been catching fish in the river nearby. Levi’s nose crinkles at the familiar scent of the river that clings to the both of them.

The boy lays the fish he’s holding- out before Levi, not sparing a one of the large bundle he’d caught. In the night? Had he been fishing in the night? Then had he seen Levi emerge from the river…

Levi feels a gentle hand touch at the fur about the neck, comforting, soothing.

The boy’s eyes vibrant on seeing he has awoke and would have been even more so had the sun never rose.

“Good morning Captain! Cats like fish don’t they? That’s what my mom says. You’re the biggest cat I’ve ever seen! Just wait here, I’m going to bring my dad to fix your leg.”

\--

The boy’s name is Eren.

Levi hears the father call him so, chiding him. Apparently, Eren’s father is a doctor. From the way Eren had cried and insisted, his father had either been expecting an actual cat… or a person from the severity of Eren’s panic. While there’d been a note of sympathy in his voice before, Levi had not seen the anguish and the pain that’s on Eren’s expression currently. As he tries to convince his father there’s nothing to be afraid of.

Levi had eaten all the fish he’d brought, had not showed any signs of aggression to him…

If it’d not been for the comforting red of the boy’s scarf, instinct probably would have driven Levi out of his weariness. He’s been in this form for a while. One must turn back and remain in the other form for an equal amount of time to not lose themselves to one form. Levi can turn into a human and he can turn into a tiger. But it must be equal. For however long he remains a tiger, he must remain a human when he can turn as thus.

He cannot turn back now.

To these people he is a tiger.

Should he become a man before their eyes, though a human would be an easier patient. A man who can do that, is alike to the beast he can become. In society’s eyes such a being will not be tolerated. His clan has been hunted down for centuries for this very reason and few of them remain unless they wish to give up their heritage. And many of them have, be it within the cities or the forests alike. Are you man or are you beast? A world does not exist where the boundaries of in between cross and remain everlasting.

Eren’s father cannot hold him back and Eren runs out from his grasp to prove a point. Picking berries from the nearby bushes along his way.

Eren approaches Levi and holds a hand against his fur, stroking it. The other hand full of berries he holds out to Levi. Levi doesn’t usually eat such a thing in this form, but he can’t really destroy Eren’s set up that’s going to convince Eren’s father, that a tiger of all beasts, of such bulk and strength understands that they mean him no harm. 

Levi cannot be sure they really do mean him no harm just because a child is kind, is the adult who reared him just the same?

That aside, they’re his best bet to getting this leg fixed.

Eren giggles as Levi’s tongue licks at his berry juice stained fingers, cleaning it after he’s eaten all the berries.

Eren’s father sighs.

But his relenting smile makes it seem like he feels just as Eren does.

“Alright Eren. I’ll try my best to fix up his leg.”

Eren gives out a cry of happiness before latching onto Levi with both his arms, a big hug that Eren’s father sputters at (Eren should be more careful, this is an injured! Tiger!) before continuing.

“But if your dad loses his hand in the process, you’ll have to be the one to explain that to mom. And she’s scarier than a tiger when she’s mad. Got it Eren?”

Levi feels Eren’s smile in his fur turn to a pout that’s fully shown for the doctor to see.

“Yes sir!”

\--

Eren’s father, Grisha patches up his leg. The father and son pair leave for a few hours… but return with a large cart drawn by a horse. The cart cannot enter the thick foliage. Levi does his best to make it over to them without taxing his leg, gritting his fangs as he feels needles of pain shoot up and down it. He makes it to the cart, and is carried back to their home; Eren riding in the cart with him. Stroking his head and telling him, voice confident, smile wide- Captain will be better in no time!

At their home, Eren’s mother greets them. Her name is Carla, and her name is said many times by Dr Grisha as he tries to assure her the tiger is cooperative and will not hurt them. She must have been expecting a cub… or a smaller cat. Which she likes, Eren quips. Because she gets flustered on going back on their previously discussed agreement of it’s alright. It was alright until she saw it was a giant, grown adult tiger that’d be staying.

Levi doesn’t know until later what they decide, because he lays his head on Eren’s lap and blacks out.

When he comes to he is in a small barn of sorts. 

In a stall not too close to where the horse resides. Taking a risk they are, but perhaps since he can’t move all too much with his bad leg they figure he won’t eat the horse.

He can’t very well move, not only from his bad leg. Thoroughly and properly patched up, a bulky cast and all, with Eren sleeping against him as he is. Looking at his closed puffy red eyes he must have cried a lot to convince his parents that he can stay.

Stupid kid.

Crazy, too kind and that sort of brave the recklessness of youth can bring.

Had he been not a man at all, and only a tiger… depending, perhaps this could be done. But not with the ease it had been. Levi lays his head down by his paws. Looking at Eren from the corner of his eye. Snuggled up so comfortably against him. Happy to make a friend.

There’s a bang in the distance as the door to the house is slammed open but not shut, hurried footsteps to the barn, Carla with her dark hair a mess about her. She’s looking for Eren, expecting him in his bed with the stars out.

She enters the barn and sees him sleeping against the tiger.

Levi peers up at her.

She regards him cautiously, looking from him to Eren, and back again.

She looks more than a little angry.

Levi feels guilty though he really hasn’t done anything.

Tigresses are truly fearsome.

“Since you haven’t done anything, don’t think I think you won’t!”

But even as she says this she bites at her bottom lip, trying to convince herself of her own words.

She opens up the stall he’s in and moves slowly towards where Eren lies. Glaring all the while. Levi sighs internally. He wants her to know, he’s no intention of harming a child and one that has saved him nonetheless. As Carla reaches to pick up Eren, Levi knocks his head against her arm. Expression its typical deadpan. If that could be noticed on a tiger.

Carla jumps.

“Eh?! What? Seriously? Could it be…”

Carla is just like Eren.

Levi figures Eren has not only taken after his mother’s looks, but other points.

A fondness of cats for sure, as Carla can’t resist petting Levi’s head, enjoying the feel of his fur.

She’s flustered and embarrassed to give in, looking even angrier than before. As she secures the stall, Eren in her arms as she leaves the barn, she calls back-

“I! I have my eye on you Captain!”

\--

“How are you feeling today Captain?”

Is what the doctor Grisha always asks him before he inspects his healing nicely leg. Levi is mildly amused since he can’t very well answer… lest he wants to give himself away.

Eren’s parents call him Captain. Because Eren calls him Captain. Eren calls Levi Captain… because Eren had seen him.

Beneath the pale light of the moon, a tiger steering a small boat to the middle of the river, before cutting off the power. Breaking through the hull with a large front paw, claws tearing into the wood to make a hole. Sinking the ship he’d been just manning, he’d dove into the water. Swimming expertly.

It’s because of that Eren calls him ‘Captain’.

There’s worse nicknames Levi supposes.

Eren’s parents are even picking up on Eren’s habit of saluting him on greeting, should it be morning or night, when they see him. Chuckling or laughing to themselves, at how cute Eren is when he gets to see Levi. Happy, excited. His cheeks flushed and his smile uncontained.

When Levi is well enough and they trust him more, after many nights of Eren sneaking out to go sleep by his side in the barn they let him into the house. But not without a bath, careful of the cast. Levi loves the bath. Eren insisting he gets to wash the Captain’s fur, and Carla helping him. Choosing a soap she thinks will not be too displeasing in scent to a tiger’s sensitive nose. She has to stop Eren from picking out his favourite scent of the soap, her favourite as well. Overly floral and the Captain is a male tiger isn’t he? Eren relents though he frowns at her, since he likes it so much and he’s a boy too.

Carla just smiles at Eren and pats his head, apologising.

They let Levi sleep in Eren’s room at first, at the foot of the bed since there’s no way he’ll fit on the bed. But when Eren keeps moving from his bed onto the floor, they set up some mats, pillows and blankets before the hearth in the main room. So Eren can sleep with Levi there, more comfortably and easier to keep an eye on.

Eventually the cast can come off, and Levi is allowed to roam the area. He still needs to strengthen his leg. He hunts for his own food, not minding, and grateful of the fish and chickens that’s been shared with him but he needs more meat if he wants to be as strong as he was before. He fully intends to kill those poachers if they aren’t dead already from being stranded on his side of the river.

He needs to hurry back soon, so he can revert to his human form too.

He doesn’t mind this sort of life though.

It’s rather nice to see a family like Eren’s, so reliant and trusting of each other. Levi wonders why they’ve decided to make their home here in the deep woods but does not… cannot pry as he is. Over hearing snippets of conversation between Eren’s parents he has a vague idea. For whatever reason, the marriage between Eren’s parents had not been approved by their families, and so despite that Eren’s father’s profession is a doctor, a useful and very sought for sort of person to any town. They lived in seclusion, far from society.

Much like how his clan does…. did, is what Levi is thinking. Even like tigers, though they’re a clan they live apart once becoming an adult. They kept in touch like humans, or had tried to before their numbers dwindled to the extent it had.

Perhaps these Yeagers are also a clan akin to his.

There is something about Eren that strikes Levi as familiar, comforting.

Levi will miss Eren sleeping aside him during the cool nights, his sneaky after-bedtime stories beneath his blanket, accompanying Eren when Eren ‘hunts’ (usually ducks or rabbits, Levi once brought down a wild boar that’d tried to attack Eren; they’d eaten exceptionally well that night), swimming with Eren in a small nearby lake Eren takes him to where he also fishes.

Eren tells him he likes to fish in the night, you see more interesting things at night, and he usually catches bigger fish. He has to sneak out to do it, because otherwise his mom would get angry, even though she’s always impressed if he catches big fish.

Levi catches some big fish for Eren that day.

Hoping it’ll deter Eren from thinking he can only catch big fish at night.

The days and nights pass peacefully.

But ticking swiftly like the third hand of the clock.

As Levi hunts more in the woods and gains his strength, he feels instinct wants to overtake him.

His leg fully healed.

It’s time he must leave before he cannot turn another.

He hunts the biggest deer he can find and leaves it at the Yeagers’ doorstep as thanks.

He leaves during the night.

Making sure to draw a blanket over Eren before he departs, knowing the warmth of his fur no longer beneath Eren might cause discomfort to him. It will not wake him however. Eren sleeps deeply each time he sleeps, near impossible to rouse.

Levi had intended to leave just as this, but the frown on Eren’s lips, his furrowed brow. Knowing in his slumber that outside of it something is wrong. Levi can’t.

While he knows there’s a risk.

Levi shifts into his human form for a moment, forgetting how things work outside that of a tiger, he remains on all fours as he leans over Eren. Levi kisses at Eren’s brow gently, before stroking his hair and cheek like Eren has done similarly to him many times in wanting to comfort him.

Levi cannot leave yet because he’s wanted to say this for so long.

“Eren.”

The furrow in Eren’s brow lessens, as does his frown.

“Thank you.”

Levi leaves through the door and shifting back into a tiger, heads back into the deeper woods, determined to cross the river and make sure that any intruders that remain are eliminated.

\--

It’s been months since he’d last been home.

After making sure the poachers are no longer present within his range, either running off to die elsewhere or most disappointingly surviving but still managing to escape his forest. Levi turns to his human form to tend to his much need in tidying up home. A cross between a built fixture and a den. Other animals have been in here but none of those humans thankfully. The weather has taken its toll on many places, the roof and window need patching up. Mold needs to be cleaned from various walls, mushrooms destroyed, leaves swept, dirt and the like washed away.

All this is done, before Levi returns to his regular routine.

Or rather, he tries to.

He finds himself eating less of his kill, expecting to share it with others.

He’s careful when he goes for a swim, anticipating another swimming near him.

He finds himself craving fish and picking more berries to eat even when he’s not a human.

Though these lands are not cold, and winter is mild. He finds himself shivering in the night with no one next to him.

Soon, Levi cannot be in his tiger form without resentment.

Eren’s fingers that used to stroke his fur, comb through it. Eren who pressed his face and kisses upon it, giggling and smiling, adorable. Eren sleeping peacefully beside him.

Levi misses it.

The company, the warmth.

Something to protect.

He even misses Eren calling out to him, ‘Captain!’ when a meal was ready or he was leading the way to a different part of the woods Levi had yet to be. Excited to show Levi the flower patch he loves to nap in, a tree he likes to climb, the strong bamboo he likes to play hide and seek amongst, where the sweetest berries grow, that lake they always swam in because the river was too strong for Eren; for humans in general.

Should Eren fall Levi would pick him up by the collar of his shirt (scolded by Carla many times, because his teeth wore at the fabric). Should Eren grow tired Eren would ride him, sitting atop his back, giddy and gleeful to be up high. Levi would carry him home, Carla tsking at whatever dirt or scrape Eren had and then it would not only be bath time for Eren but also for his Captain.

Levi figures over time he will forget.

It’s better that way.

His existence would endanger them, and he’s still concerned he’s overlooked some things. The poachers remain or will return soon.

Days and months pass into years.

And time has changed nothing.

\--

That is not entirely true.

Levi crosses the river unable to take it any longer. 

He approaches cautiously to where he remembers the Yeagers to live, not wanting to be spotted, to be found. He disrupted their lives before and he does not want to do so again. No doubt Eren had been sad, angry… hurt that he left. He crouches beneath some bushes, hoping the green is thick enough to hide the dark orange and black of his striped fur.

When he finds no one at the house, he heads through all the places Eren took him to. The flower patch, the bamboo thickets, the lake. Finding Eren not in any of those places he returns to his river come nightfall, trying to convince himself to return home, unwilling since he’d not seen Eren.

Trying to decide on what he’ll regret least-

There’s a splash, the fall of water. Drips and drops as a figure emerges from the river.

It is the dead of night.

Levi crouches beneath some bushes, tense and ready should it be a poacher trying to catch him unawares-

But the dark hair, darker from the water, beneath the lit starry sky- slender fingers that wipe away at the water that falls on his eyes from his dripping hair- is unmistakenly recognisable. Just as the bright gold of those eyes that peer over to where he’s hiding. Having heard a noise. Long lashes frame such a gaze, blinking, glancing away as Eren reaches to grab a towel to towel himself dry. A basket on the shoreline with all his things, tucked and hidden by some rocks.

Levi watches as Eren reaches for his clothing.

Eren who has grown so much these past years, from a boy to a young man.

Fully capable of swimming in the river on his own.

Levi stays hidden beneath the bushes, unable to fathom his sudden intense desire to stalk, to hunt at this moment as he watches Eren pull his clothes on. Watching as Eren covers with a shirt- broad shoulders, a slim waist, wide hips before doing the same to long legs, a large rear that he bares as he pulls up his trousers. Toeing on his shoes as he draws his arms through the sleeves of his worn looking coat. His shirt looking to be in similar shape. Eren bundles up the fish he caught, and packing up the rest of his equipment, begins his trail back home.

Levi follows him.

He could return home as well.

He’s met his objective, he’s seen Eren.

He should. Return home.

Eren is alive and well.

That was all Levi had wanted to know.

Levi makes sure to follow Eren carefully, quietly, unwilling to reveal himself even more the more he looks at Eren, wracking his brains to riddle it out on the why this is he just doesn’t know.

On seeing how much taller, developed Eren is. On how much more beautiful he’s become. There is a hunger gnawing within Levi he is denying, he is refusing. Convincing himself his precaution is because he might eat Eren. That he wants to delve his teeth into Eren’s soft flesh to see how warm and sweet it is. Levi is acting this way because he wants to eat Eren.

He must be careful not to act upon his instincts.

Just a little more, to sate this desire for a taste he’s naught to have.

Just a little longer, so he won’t go mad.

Levi will look.

Eren returns home but he calls out no greeting, entering through the front door without a pause or a glance to see who else might be home. He already knows. It’s just him.

Levi watches Eren as he moves about the house. Cleaning and preparing the fish to cook, hears the chopping of a knife quickly moving over vegetables, smoke from the chimney.

Eren is probably making stew.

Levi remembers it’d been one of Eren’s favourites when his mother cooked it.

Where is Eren’s mother?

Where is his father?

Eren sits to eat alone at the dinner table, and after cleaning the dishes, disappears further into the house to get ready for bed.

Levi will leave once the lights are out.

But even after that he does not.

\--

For some reason Eren’s parents are no longer in the house with him.

Years have passed, but not enough that could be enough of years for age to have taken Eren’s parents away. Were they deceased, or had they gone elsewhere? If so, why? When will they return? Will they return?

Levi knows it has been too long already they’ve been gone.

Eren goes about his chores with a frown on his lips.

His soft lips that a smile would be all the better shown on.

He goes about chopping wood a bit sloppily. Should Levi turn into a human, he would definitely correct Eren’s form on this. It’ll yield more wood in less time, and not be as tiring. The method Levi could teach Eren.

When Eren tires he goes back inside to fetch a drink. Looking over his work worriedly, it is not much, but probably enough for him for the while. A cool looking drink, condensation slides down the glass as sweat slides down Eren’s brow, his face. The back of his neck. Levi’s mouth fills with saliva as he looks at the back of Eren’s pretty neck. Eren’s eyelashes fluttering as he drinks deeply what might be iced tea. Licking his lips when he drinks the glass empty, the last drops spilling on them. Against a plump bottom lip, dribbling down his chin.

Levi looks over Eren’s long fingers around the glass, held firmly and tight.

Eren sighs and pulls at his shirt, already loose on his slim figure, and too big anyway. Letting it hang even looser so air might pass through, trying to cool from the heat of the day and his work.

Eren returns back inside the house for what is too long.

\--

He will go soon.

Levi is trying to convince himself.

But he can’t bring himself to return. Not when Eren is by himself, unprotected. Lonely.

He can’t stop watching him. 

It’s torture.

Prey he can’t ever catch.

Levi sometimes stays in the barn, on learning the horse is no longer there. The barn is empty but for the hay. The chickens in their own keep.

It’s not for long.

He’d not expected Eren to check there, but Eren must have heard him moving within, this place where there shouldn’t be an animal.

He’d rushed out, but barely on time, his tail trailing out behind him. Eren had chased after him. Lantern in hand, just about to turn in for the night.

But Eren does not pursue him into the deeper depths of the forest, not when his only weapon at hand is a knife. Eren keeps a knife on his person at all times, unless he’s swimming. 

Levi had seen from his new hiding place amongst some trees- Eren’s yearning look, hopeful and eyes a bright they’ve not been in a while. Looking, scanning ravenously over the face of the forest for him. Finding nothing. Eren returns back into the house, shoulders slumped, steps sluggish.

\--

When Levi hunts he does not hunt only for himself.

It’s cruel, but because Eren had caught a glimpse of him, Levi can’t help himself.

When Levi knows Eren is asleep, like his parting gift, Levi brings Eren some of his kills. Another deer, some boar. Bigger animals Eren would have a difficult time hunting on his own. Levi satisfied when Eren accepts his kills, confused at first, then hungry and willing. Eren cooks an array of foods with the meat Levi brings him. Eren smokes and dries some of the meat for later, grills it and not only makes the stew he so loves. Eren eats heartily and looks happier for it, at first.

But his expression soon turns from joy to melancholy at the kills he’s presented, when the hunter does not ever reveal himself.

To compensate Levi tries to bring kills that are larger, more impressive but it only seems to anger Eren. 

Eren is crying in frustration one morning as he storms into the forest, knife not at hand, only his fury. Calling for Levi.

“Captain! Captain! Are you there? If you’re here then show yourself! Please Captain! Stop hiding! Come to me! Captain!”

Eren would call for him until his voice grew hoarse.

Roaming deeper into the woods, the louder and more cracked and worn his cries became. On the verge of tears sometimes, and finally crying when he went back home, unable to find his Captain.

Levi wants to go to Eren but he knows he can’t.

He shouldn’t.

Eren has become too lovely.

Levi has finally admitted to himself what this hunger really is, why he wants to eat Eren.

If Levi were to return to Eren’s side, without fail, with certainty, he’d abandon this form. Turning back into a man, he’d definitely eat Eren. 

Levi would eat him up first by kissing those soft lips that part when Eren sighs, tasting Eren’s tongue and teeth, he’d bite at Eren’s neck and throat and leave all sorts of marks. He’d nip and suck at Eren’s nipples as he feels him up, holding him down by his too wide hips before moving his touch down to Eren’s plump ass. He’d lay Eren across the bed he’d been unwilling to sleep in since Levi wouldn’t fit and then Levi would taste him there. He’d tease and lick at Eren’s hole before making himself fit. Eren’s voice would grow hoarse as Levi takes him from behind over and over. Levi would bite at the back of Eren’s pretty neck, marking him, devouring him as he fills him with his seed.

Levi wants to protect Eren.

But he also wants to make Eren his.

What would Eren think of that?

If his Captain turned out to be a beast, not the sort his parents had worried about, but one even more terrifying, horrifying?

Levi can’t do that to Eren so he won’t reveal himself.

\--

Levi can’t leave.

He’s resigned himself to this.

He has to protect Eren so he will stay in this less than deep forest and live the rest of his life as a tiger. He will shift into a man only when he feels his animal instincts will overtake him, but he will do so far away from where Eren is. So he won’t be tempted.

Eren might want him to come to him, but he will resist.

Over time Eren will see that what Levi is doing is best for him and accept it.

Bringing Eren food, and Eren knowing he is here, that brings him some comfort doesn’t it? 

Even if he can’t see him, and Levi can’t be with him.

If Levi were with him Levi would give Eren all the comfort he’s craving.

He’d mount Eren before the fireplace where they oft slept, and hold onto him tightly, as tightly as surely it’d be inside Eren. What sort of face would Eren make? What sort of sighs and moans would he have for his Captain as Levi fills him again and again. How loud would he be? How eager and sweet and warm would he be with Levi holding him, having him?

Levi is careful not to sharpen his claws on any trees near to where Eren might roam. He digs into the bark, tears into it, when he thinks for too long over Eren’s mouth on his. Eren’s fingers against his back, his nails raking up it as he gasps for more, for his Captain.

Levi has to leave.

He’d been resolute, decided before he wouldn’t ever.

But then in the sun, a blanket covered over him. Eren has decided to have a nap in the garden. Beneath the shade of the trees, his long eyelashes against his cheeks, his lips slightly parted. Levi knows Eren must not have slept outside before, not with child naivety gone, his parents gone, his Captain gone.

His Captain is here again and though Eren has not seen him, as Levi had intended, despite that- his presence still gives Eren security.

And so that’s why Eren is out here in the open having a nap after tending to the garden. His dirty gloves by the shovel he’d been using. A light sweat on his back drying as he cools within the shade. The blanket he’s using worn like his clothing, and the one Levi had drawn over him before he’d departed.

Levi can’t leave while Eren is sleeping out here, defenseless and relying on him to watch over him.

Out of what remains of his clan, Levi has always been thought of as one of the strongest. Physically, mentally; it must be a load of bullshit because Levi can’t help himself from emerging from the forest.

He sits beside Eren, and for a moment it seems Eren might have woke, for Eren moves. Leaning over to be aside him. Sighing happily, contently as his face makes contact with Levi’s fur. Eren presses his body against Levi’s. The blanket falling to pool across his thick thighs.

Levi does not intend to stay long.

Another minute.

Another and another.

Eren is hard to wake, Levi can leave at any time, he should leave- the sooner the better.

All words he’s been saying to himself, telling himself over and over.

Before Eren wakes up and realises his Captain here next him is not a dream.

Levi wants to turn into a human.

Eren is so close to him. Eren is too cute. Snuggled up against him like this, even though he’s not a child anymore. Even though he’s so beautiful, even more- it’s not right to accuse Eren. Eren doesn’t know Levi is not only a beast. Eren doesn’t know anything. Eren is innocent. Eren needs his protection. 

Levi wants to kiss him.

If Levi kisses him once, Levi knows he’ll do it again, and again.

As many times as he can get away with.

If Levi turns into a human only one kiss won’t do, a hundred and a thousand won’t do.

Levi wants to enter Eren.

Eren is so difficult to wake, all those kisses won’t do it, but Levi’s cock might do the trick. Hard and thick inside Eren’s tight heat. Would Eren wake should Levi fuck him against this tree, and hold him not to his soft fur but his hard muscle and tough skin? Would Eren cry out for his Captain to come save him as Levi takes him, has him, holds him-

Eren does not wake up from his nap for quite some time, having gotten too comfortable. He moves slowly, lethargic from being unwilling to leave the warmth of his nice dream. 

He pulls back the blanket he doesn’t remember drawing up so high upon himself, as he rises from the grass. Some of it on his cheek. He must have leaned over from the tree he’d been lying back against. Thinking his Captain had returned to him. So had been his dream, a wonderful dream. Eren smiles a little to himself, on how vivid the dream had been. Eren touches the tips of his fingers to the other remembering the feel of fur.

Eren yawns as he rises, back to tending the garden a little more before cooking dinner.

\--

Sometimes Eren leaves food out for him.

Checking if it’s eaten when he goes to bed, and always giddy should it have been eaten when he wakes the next morning. Levi has to fight other animals rarely for this homecooking. Given he’s marked the territory around Eren’s home, up and down, to make sure many of his ilk, know to back off.

Unfortunately it only applies to animals, and humans will not be deterred by it.

They come in the middle of the night.

When Levi is away hunting.

He returns to the home to see the door is ajar.

Forced into, the lock hangs broken.

Whatever kill Levi had had, he drops. Mouth marred with blood he runs. Panic edging into his being as he hurries into Eren’s house. Senses alight, as he smells not only Eren’s scent but strangers’ as well.

There are two men.

One is holding a rifle as the other struggles to tie Eren up. The chains too heavy, rope will do for the meanwhile. Eren unrelenting even with a gun pointed at him. Knowing if they wanted to kill him they would have already. Eren’s cheek is swelling from where they struck him. He’s a little hunched over from where they’d kicked him, punched him, grabbed at him. Levi sees the developing bruises as the man trying to tie Eren up pushes up his shirt but is almost stabbed by Eren’s knife, hidden and unable to be grabbed at before. The man with the rifle smacks Eren in the back of the head with the butt of it, but not hard enough to knock Eren out. It still hurts and Eren loses hold of his knife. It skids to the ground.

Eren is then bound, and pushing him over the table where he’d ate all those meals with his family and alone, is the man who’d tied him up. With Eren unable to push him away, the man also gags him, before pushing up the back of Eren’s shirt. His hand at the waistline of Eren’s trousers. He pauses as the man with the gun asks him, “What? You wanna try out the goods before you sell em? I don’t mind, but I’m sick of having your sloppy seconds.”

Those are the last words he ever says, unable to hear a reply as Levi tears his throat out with his teeth. 

The dead body heavy on the ground, the gun clunking, clamoring as it falls. The other man Levi bares his blood soaked fangs at, growling dreadfully. Every animalistic instinct he’d suppressed to maintain what little humanity he could without shifting flown high and gone. Seizing him.

The other man used to hunting humans and not beasts, gapes at Levi.

He has made a mistake.

He did not bind Eren’s legs.

A sharp kick strikes against his skull as Eren rolls off from the table, away from him. Flinging himself to the knife that’d been dropped to the ground, Eren grabs at the hilt what he can, and begins to cut through his binds as Levi circles this scum that dared laid a hand on his Eren.

Eren is free from his bindings.

He picks himself up and the knife.

Pulling, tearing away the gag.

Levi hunches over, and rises. A roar- furious, murderous. Loud from his blood thirsty maw that has the man cowering in sheer terror. Expecting to die by the very fangs that’d killed his associate. But Levi does not spring, or attack him. It is not by this tiger’s teeth that this man will die, but towering over him, knife at hand. The cold of steel is at his throat. Steel which makes both anvil and hammer. A burning gaze, more bloodthirsty and unforgiving than that of the beast’s before him, is turned upon the slaver as horrible and menacing as judgment.

It is.

“Die. You filthy scum.”

Eren cuts the man’s throat and another dead body falls to the floor.

Eren’s hand drips red, as dark as the red on Levi’s mouth.

Eren looks over the two dead men in his house, his expression cold after all the heat has left. He doesn’t care. It doesn’t matter.

Such an inhuman look.

Dispassionate and unfeeling.

But then Eren turns to look at Levi and the heat is alive, rises, breathes. And so does Eren.

Eren speaks, voice quivering as he holds back tears. A hand at his side. The wound there.

“You’ve finally returned to me, my Captain.”

Before he collapses.

\--

Levi had put Eren over his back and carried him across the river, through the deeper woods, into the forests where he lives. To his once more neglected home. He finally shifts to his human form, not bothering to put on clothes as he pulls off Eren’s to look over his wounds and treat them. Scowling and cursing himself, at the bruises, the cuts. Hating himself when he feels his cock grow hard on seeing Eren’s naked body even in the state it’s in. Undeserving to touch him, unworthy to look at him. If only he’d been doing his job properly. If only he hadn’t left Eren alone at all. Then none of this-

Levi treats Eren the best he can, swearing at himself some more knowing that the treatment Eren’s father could give him would have been far better than what he’d managed. But from the looks of it, Eren’s father… his mother… had not been and would not be returning to his home soon. Hopefully not ever, from the state they had to leave it in.

Levi pulls on some clothes. After making sure Eren looks comfortable (under every blanket and pelt he could find), he begins to tidy up and repair his den as he had to do the last time he’d left it. He’d not been gone as long as he had when he’d broke his leg so it’s not as bad as the last. It’s been a while since he’d been in this form. He decides, picking up his bow and the quiver of arrows, it’d be better to hunt in it then. He checks on Eren one last time before going off to hunt, remembering what had happened the last time he’d done so. Finding Eren still sleeping soundly, and with less a pained furrow of his brow- Levi checks out his nearby surroundings first, making sure no intruders are around. While it’d been slavers that’d tried to capture Eren, there’s a possibility poachers could have dared to come back into his lands. One misfortune follows another. This world is cruel… he remembers Mikasa had said to him, before she’d gone off, a tigress grown. To find a place where she wanted to live out her life. A gloomy brat, Levi had always said of her. But he’s no room to talk even if it’s been a while since he was a brat.

When Levi returns Eren is still sleeping.

Levi decides to make stew. The taste isn’t going to be like the way Eren or his mother cooks it, given he uses different ingredients. He hopes Eren won’t mind. It’s not gunna be that good (his mother hadn’t been adept at cooking, so neither is he; Mikasa is rather skilled despite that it was Levi that had primarily raised her) …but at least the stew will be filling and warm.

Levi has finished eating his portion when Eren comes to, groggy. Shivering despite all those blankets. It’s farther up north where Levi lives, but he also knows it’s because-

“Captain!” Eren is calling out for him, as he rises confusedly, blinking sleep away. His hand reaching, searching for him. Must have thought it not quite right, but hoping, on feeling some of the other animal pelts that cover him, that one of those furs are that of his-

“Captain! Where are you? Please Captain! Come here! Come to me!”

As Eren wakes to unfamiliar surroundings.

“Hey. There’s no need to raise your voice so loudly.”

Levi watches as Eren’s entire body stills, cautious, but not the fearful Levi had been anticipating.

Instead a fearsome glare is directed at him that causes Levi’s eyes to widen just a tad.

“You… Where is Captain? If you’re… a poacher I won’t forgive you! If you’ve hurt him I won’t forgive you! I-”

Eren reaches for his knife but on not finding it or any clothes on his person only bandages and gauze, he gives a yelp of surprise before drawing a blanket over himself. Rising to his feet, shakily.

Eren blinks back a few tears before he begins to call out for Captain again.

Levi is irritated.

“Will you stop that already. Your Captain is fine. He’s right before your eyes. Eren.”

Eren shakes his head, glaring still.

“That makes no sense! I do not see him! Where have you put him? Please do not lie to me sir!”

“How cold Eren, though I suppose you finding your manners ain’t the worst of it. ‘Sir’ is better than ‘ _you_ ’, but won’t you call me ‘Captain’ like you always do instead of just hollering it like I’m not even sittin’ right here?”

Eren looks over to him and-

“Captain? You can’t be Captain, sir! Captain is… a tiger! I do not know if you were a Captain before and that is why you are confused but, my Captain is- my friend! I do not… I don’t know you…”

Eren has turned away from him, after exclaiming passionately. Full of energy and indignant. Weary and exhausted emotionally suddenly. Eren is to the limit of his loneliness.

Eren has sat back onto the bed, trying to hide his tears behind some of the blanket he’s wearing. Levi rises, to go sit on the bed. Next to Eren. Crossing his legs and folding his arms. His sigh annoyed as he falls over and plops his head down on Eren’s lap. Eren startled.

“W-w-what do you think you are doing sir!?”

“It’s Levi. If you don’t want to call me Captain.”

“Mr Levi! Uhm, why-”

“What? Don’t like the idea of stroking my head when I look like this Eren?”

Eren doesn’t say anything. Thoroughly confused, biting at his lip as he thinks everything over. All that he’s said, where he is, where Captain is not, who this person could be, what this person has said-

“Why… why do you know my name?”

Levi draws a hand up near his face to squeeze at one of the thighs beneath him. It’s soft, like Eren’s stomach at the back of his head. Levi turns a little to look at Eren looking down at him, comprehension starting to seep into his voice and look.

“Why do you think, Eren?”

Eren’s cheeks are flushed, a blush that colours not only his face but his ears and down his neck. It’s adorable and Levi wants to eat Eren up.

“Uhm, I don’t think I quite understand but…”

Levi stills, his heart lurching into a frenzied pounding as he feels Eren’s hand on his head, stroking it.

Eren continues.

“You’re someone I can trust, aren’t you?”

\--

As Eren’s wounds steadily heal Levi teaches him how to help around the house more. What cleaning that needs to be done (laundry they can’t be neglectful about, especially since Eren is borrowing much of his clothes), that proper way to chop wood he’d been wanting to teach Eren for a while, how to hunt with not just a snare but also a bow. They go fishing together too. And Levi promises (by Eren’s urging) that when his wounds have _all_ fully healed they’ll go swim in the river too.

Eren tries to teach Levi how to make the stew he cooks taste better (after gulping down all that he could from the last time Levi made it by himself), and makes jam from what berries they gather, the sweeter the better Eren asks of him. Levi agreeing when Eren places a hand at his wrist, or loops his arm around his when they walk together, when Eren smiles at him, or places his fingers at his lips as he tries to stifle a laugh.

Peaceful days, a little bit like the time before, even though Levi no longer shifts into a tiger.

Eren probably knows, but just doesn’t understand. He probably won’t fully comprehend unless Levi shifts before him. Right now, Eren probably thinks his Captain brought him to Levi. Levi being the only other person in this forest… to help him, to save him. It makes Levi sound much better than he is, that’s for sure.

Even by Levi’s side, with that loneliness ebbing, Levi can tell. Eren misses his Captain.

It’s stupid. He’s an idiot to be jealous of his own self, but it’s hard not to be when Eren draws close against him when they sleep in the same bed together. Sometimes crying and calling, softly from within his slumber, for Captain! over and over. Levi always needing to leave their bed. Going out into the cold night, where he can crouch behind some tree and beat himself off. Looking at all the thick, heavy cum that drips out from his cock. Wanting to put it inside his Eren, on Eren’s soft skin and softer lips. The tips of his fingers bleeding from when he grabbed onto the bark of the tree too tightly, forgetting it’s not claws he has.

Levi should be happy with this. He gets to be with Eren and protect Eren. Keep a closer eye on him, make sure what happened that night never happens again.

But Levi can’t forget that night, the way Eren had looked. Despite that he is human- Eren is a beast himself- a hunter, a killer- someone akin to him, to Levi- to Captain. The tiger.

It only makes Levi want Eren more.

At Eren’s side finally, Eren confides in Levi.

That night Levi knows about already. Who the Captain is. How lonely Eren had been when the Captain had left him. Then how much lonelier he became with his parents gone. That was not the first time men like that had come to their home. The first time his mother had protected him. She’d been fine at first, but the knife that’d stabbed her had been laced with some sort of poison. It did not kill his mother quickly, but made her sick. His father did not have all the materials he needed to make an antidote and so had returned to the village that so hated his parents to get them. His father returned with the antidote. But it was too late.

They cremated his mother.

And then.

His father went mad from grief.

One morning, whilst crying and hugging him, his father asked him to forgive him and to survive whatever came his way. That Eren must become strong, like the Captain, like a tiger- to live. 

Then his father had left.

After his father did not return for so long Eren decided to go look for him.

He headed in the direction he never took. To that village his parents had come from, and where his father had walked to when he left.

Eren walked and walked, his father haven taken the horse. 

When he came to where the village should be, all there had been was ash.

As Eren tells Levi this, they sit together at the table.

Cups of tea out. Levi’s near empty and Eren’s left cold.

Eren drinks it all down.

Levi speaks.

“What do you think Eren? Do you think your father killed all those people? Do you think they had something to do with why your mother died?”

Eren looks at his empty cup.

Levi rises to fill it with another serving, hot.

“I don’t know. But if he did, then my dad is a murderer. And I am no better than him.”

Levi sets Eren’s cup down.

“You’re wrong Eren.”

Eren looks up to Levi.

“All who enter this forest is no longer a man, but a beast. It was a beast you killed that day, nothing more and nothing less.”

\--

Those words Levi had said to Eren hold true to not only Eren, but Levi as well.

When the poachers come again Levi is ready to settle the score. It has been too long since he shifted into a tiger. He has been starving himself on either side depending the situation and it’s good to finally be free.

He hunts them down, one by one, two by two, three by three, the numbers don’t matter. The river runs red as he dumps their bodies into it. Knowing with how deep and quick the water runs it will carry their dead weight to the sea, never to be seen again. When the river runs clean once more, Levi will take Eren here and they can swim together. 

Eren should be safe.

While where the poachers had appeared may be on his side of the forest, it is far from where their house is.

Levi washes his mouth and claws in the river.

After making sure none of the poachers remain, Levi begins his too long trek home. Excited at the prospect of seeing Eren he begins to run the closer he gets.

The door opens before he reaches it and Eren’s expectant, suddenly tearful face shakes him. Why is Eren looking at him like that? Did he know of the danger Levi had been in before? Had something happened while he was away? But aside the tears. Eren looks fine otherwise. Their home unscathed.

Levi soon realises his error, since a man is the same as a beast to him.

Eren opens his arms to him. 

Eren embracing him.

Eren tells Levi what he’s been longing to hear-

“Welcome home! My Captain!”

\--

By the lit hearth Eren is pressing his body against his. Running his slender fingers through his fur, stroking his head, sighing and murmuring as he presses kisses to his neck, his ears, his cheek. Asking him where he’s been all this time. Asking him why he didn’t ever show himself to him. Did he not miss him at all? Eren is clinging to him, burying his face against his neck, his tears dampening the fur there, then the skin as Levi can’t take it anymore and shifts. Eren’s trembling body, his soft lips and tear stained face. How tightly he’s clutching him to him, as if he might leave otherwise. Eren is cute.

Levi is so jealous.

He feels Eren jolt in his arms as Levi brings them up and around Eren. Pulling him closer to him so he may kiss him. Shoving his mouth roughly over Eren’s. Eren’s mouth parts in surprise, allowing Levi to dip his tongue inside. Levi holds Eren still as he kisses him, bites at him, Eren whimpering. Saliva drips between their mouths when Levi allows them to part for air. Eren’s voice is rushed and confused in the fire lit darkness.

“Mr Levi? How… but just now- my Captain, where is Captain?”

Levi kisses before biting at Eren’s neck. Eren’s sharp cry causing his erection to jump up. Levi moves a hand down to grab at Eren’s ass, kneading it as he rubs his cock against one of Eren’s thick thighs, pressing it against him as Eren tries to twist away.

“What’s wrong Eren? You don’t like this?”

Levi loops an arm behind Eren’s smaller back, tilting up his hips. Levi presses a hand down between Eren’s legs to touch him. Eren wearing nothing but one of his shirts. Eren had started to undress when he’d thought he was going to sleep before the hearth with his Captain. He’d started to unbutton his shirt when he’d brought his arms around Levi, jutting his chest out. Eren had started to rub himself against his large bulk, his thick fur, before he’d started crying, or had he started crying because he’d been doing just that?

“You really wanted to feel me earlier, you don’t anymore?”

Levi pumps Eren’s erection, he’d felt it against his fur as Eren laid kisses against his neck, his arms circling around him. Eren had wanted him then.

Eren's cock is hard and dripping. Eren’s pre cum slides over his fingers, along his knuckles. Eren is crying harder with every word Levi has said to him. His Eren is too lovely. His Eren who had grown more beautiful with each passing day. Levi groans, wanting to release himself in Eren.

Levi crouches down, between Eren’s legs. He starts to kiss at Eren’s thighs, before parting the cheeks of his ass. Levi licks at Eren’s hole. Inserting his tongue inside, Eren’s hips jerk down and he moans. Levi licks at Eren before he can’t resist biting at one of Eren’s plump ass cheeks, causing Eren to yelp. Eren spreading his legs farther than Levi had pulled them open. Levi moves back atop over Eren.

Levi strokes Eren’s hair.

“Good boy, Eren.”

Levi positions his cock at Eren’s asshole and begins to enter him, slowly moving in. Eren grits his teeth and throws his head back, gasping when Levi pushes himself further inside. Levi watches how Eren’s belly tenses as he takes him in. It’s hot and soft inside Eren. Eren is whimpering. Trying to stifle his gasps and sobs as Levi fills him, moves within him. Eren still trying to push him away but not strong enough. Levi holds Eren down beneath him, by his hips. Kissing at Eren’s turned face. His cheek, his chin. Vying for his lips. All Eren refuses of him. It’s not until Levi kisses at Eren’s brow that Eren understands. Eren’s moist eyes widening, then him closing them shut tightly, the tears overflowing before he opens them again. Moving his lovely gaze, beseeching upon Levi.

Levi moans when he moves to give Eren a kiss on his soft lips and Eren kisses him back. Opening his mouth to him eagerly. Eren’s hands reaching across his back, his nails digging into his flesh as Levi starts to fuck him harder. Eren’s legs around his hips as he tries to help Levi come closer, delve deeper inside him.

Levi kisses at Eren’s face, pressing his lips to the side of Eren’s pretty neck. Cumming when Eren presses his lips to the side of his neck just the same, and bites him. Levi bites Eren back, just as hard. Hard within Eren as he spills himself inside him. Levi slowly pulls out as he looks over Eren’s body, covered in bitemarks and hickies he’d left. Eren is panting, and full from him, but not yet fulfilled. Eren’s cock is still erect and unspent.

Eren caresses his cheek.

“Please, my Captain.”

Eren leans up to kiss him softly on the mouth, before turning onto his knees. His long eyelashes framing a downcast look as Eren still wants more from him, wants to be fucked by him still-

“Hey Eren, that wasn’t enough for ya? I’m not big enough for you like this am I? Are you sure you want this. Might hurt like hell.”

Levi shudders as Eren presses up against him, lifting his arm to curl back so he can reach to stroke the back of Levi’s head.

“Please Levi. I want all of you sir. Come to me.”

Levi reaches to kiss at the back of Eren’s neck, before he shifts, and starts to lick at it. His fangs tickling the nape, just as his fur does to Eren’s back. Eren is giggling from it, before Levi starts to nuzzle his face against the place where he bit Eren on the neck. Eren moans, pressing his soft ass up against Levi’s larger and heavier cock. Levi growing harder with every noise and look Eren gives him. Eren smiling at him, eager for him. Levi mounts Eren and begins to enter him for their second round. Eren wet from him the first time he’d taken him. Levi feels a growl low in his chest, rising as Eren starts to gasp and cry as he fills him.

It’d been too tight when he’d been a human and it’s unbearably tight as an animal. Still Eren takes Levi inside him. Wanting it, asking for it as he pushes his ass back to take Levi in to the hilt. Moaning higher the harder Levi ruts against him, the deeper he gets inside him. Eren is loud and without restraint as Levi pants and grunts over his shoulder. The fur of his chest and belly pressed to Eren’s back as he pushes his heavy weight over him and shoves his large cock inside Eren further and further. Eren keening, saliva dribbling from his parted and gasping mouth. Eren crying on each thrust as he pushes his ass back on each of them. His erection soaked and dripping as his fingers grip onto the bedding he’d laid out beneath them, his toes curling as he arches his back forward. Wanting Levi to cum in him again, always, calling out to him, crying out ‘Captain!’ just as many times as he moans and sobs for ‘Levi!’, Levi can’t not want to give his mate what he wants. Levi cums heavily inside Eren. Eren cumming quickly right after. Eren’s belly looks full from him even as he begins to pull out. Eren wincing the entire while he's pulling out.

Levi lays down aside Eren who’s quick to climb against him and bury his face against Levi’s neck, giving him kisses again and stroking his fingers through his fur.

Eren begins to straddle Levi as Eren pushes kisses against his nose, then his mouth, licking at it until Levi licks Eren’s mouth back, then his tongue. Eren’s tongue meeting his, sliding against the other’s back and forth between them. Eren moaning and his hips pushed against Levi’s fur, then his hard stomach and hips as Levi shifts into a human. Sucking at Eren’s tongue and taking it between his teeth, breathless Eren draws back as Levi kisses his neck, then Eren’s soft lips. Kissing him roughly over the mouth as Eren draws closer to him. Eren telling him they need not these blankets Levi’s drawing over them if Levi will just change back to a tiger. Levi scolds Eren, so just because Levi’s willing to give Eren his cock, whenever and however he wants Eren thinks he can get Levi to change whenever he likes? Ain’t like that, Levi says, fucking lying because the second Eren shivers, Levi shifts into a tiger. Waiting until Eren falls asleep soundly before shifting back and making due with blankets. Content with Eren in his arms, Levi falls asleep too.

\--

They go swimming in the river.

Catching fish, finishing the overdue wash, playing tag. Eren either runs from him or to him depending on what form he takes, and Eren doesn’t know until Levi emerges from the water. Eren can’t run far when he’s out of breath being too busy laughing. They end up on grassy banks. Levi trying to get Eren to give him a kiss, but won’t get one unless soaking fur is involved. They roll about on the grass until Eren gets confused on what Levi has turned to or not and Levi gets all the kisses he wants and could go for more.

Could do more too. 

Eren lets Levi mount him by the river, Eren’s cries high and loud outside beneath the open distant sky.

Levi is unsure of what form he’s in when he takes Eren sometimes, for Eren will stroke his hair and his fur just alike now.

Both exhausted, they lay aside each other on the grass looking up at the soon starry sky.

Levi’s fingers are entwined with Eren’s so for the meanwhile this is the form he’s taken though this position is everlasting.

Eren leans over and kisses at Levi’s brow.

They nap by the river which flows to the sea.

Eren reaches for Levi, and Levi meets Eren.

\--

Tyger tyger, burning bright  
In the forests of the night;  
What immortal hand or eye,  
Could frame they fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies.  
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?  
On what wings dare he aspire?  
What the hand, dare seize the fire?  


And what shoulder, & what art,  
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?  
And when thy heart began to beat,  
What dread hand? & what dread feet?  


What the hammer? what the chain,  
In what furnace was thy brain?  
What the anvil? what dread grasp,  
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!  


When the stars threw down their spears  
And water'd heaven with their tears:  
Did he smile his work to see?  
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?  


Tyger Tyger burning bright,  
In the forests of the night:  
What immortal hand or eye,  
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?  


"The Tyger" by William Blake


End file.
